Twitter Enhances X Blue Subscription with Option to Hide Verification Checkmark
Elon Musk has been making efforts to regain advertisers’ interest in X (previously known as Twitter). Recently, he has rebranded the company, pledged to transform X into a comprehensive app, initiated the development of a new video feed, introduced ad revenue sharing for verified users, and enhanced the features of the X Blue subscription (previously Twitter Blue subscription). The most recent addition to the lineup is a toggle button that enables users to display or conceal the verification checkmark, commonly referred to as the ‘blue tick’.
A Twitter user posted pictures of the X Blue setup to show off the new feature. He said, “The ability to hide your checkmark from X Blue is now enabled, I just got it”. Interestingly, the setting also comes with a message saying that “some features may not be available when the checkmark is hidden” and “using some Blue features may still reveal that you have an active subscription.”
Why does X allow users to hide the confirmation badge?
The question is simple, but the meaning is not. The subscription level of any app, also known as the premium user base, is the most valuable asset of any platform and they try their best to highlight them, not let them hide it. From the blue badge of meta to the Twitch subscription, developers have always had to solve the problem of how to make premium users stand out from the crowd so that others want it too and start subscribing.
But Twitter or now X is a different platform that suffers from a particular problem. Anyone who frequents Twitter can vouch for the fact that many users consider Musk to be a very polarizing personality, and this has resulted in people essentially being divided into pro-Musk or anti-Musk factions. From everyday users to celebrities like US politician Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and author Stephen King, everyone has had to choose sides or at least clarify their views. Because of this, the verified checkmark is often seen as a sign of favoring the owner of X, which can affect the interaction and experience they receive.
It seems that the microblogging platform has realized that its previous offer to add a blue tick as a bundled subscription benefit might not have been such a good choice. And since the platform adds a wide range of features to verified users – from unlimited DMs to access to TweetDeck (XPro), a blue tick can do more harm than good when it comes to bringing in new subscribers.
It’s possible that the constant bickering between the two groups doesn’t affect the reasoning behind the decision, and X just makes the blue tick more customizable to user preferences, but we doubt it.
